Stanislaus freshmen are in process of transitioning from high school responsibilities to meeting college expectations, which could be tough for some. Although this can be a struggle for students there are those who have “mastered” the art of multitasking.

A combination of online polls, on Twitter and Instagram, found that out of the 111 participants 72% of students voted that they are working and go to school.

Students have learned how to manage time wisely such as Tanjot Sandu (freshman, Biology) who describes her lessons learned from her high school experiences. Sandu said, “It’s my second semester here, so I haven’t lost motivation just yet. I did lose motivation during high school and that really taught me because I had to struggle my senior year to make sure I got my GPA up. Because of that struggle, I don’t really have to struggle here because I already experienced the negative effects of not doing my work,” Sandu said.

The to-do list of freshmen might be back to back events, classes, or work days. Adapting to the responsibilities of being an adult student and an employee could be extremely challenging.

Many first-year students have only had their conscious as their guide instead of a parent or a teacher managing their next move, like in high school. Although there are teachers on campus who try to understand how students are managing.Mr. Erro is a lecturer who works with freshmen college students. Erro said, “I feel I am fairly understanding to new college students. I specifically like teaching freshmen because college is a whole new experience for them and I try to make them aware of the resources available on campus and give them a sense of what’s expected.”

Freshmen students like all students might have made mistakes, whether it be sleeping in too late, forgetting assignments, or putting group projects on the back burner.

“Those excuses don’t fly for your job to do whatever you have to do to get up on time and make it to where you have to be. Related, a lot of students at the end of their semester tell me their advice for future students would be ‘to not procrastinate as much’ that’s solid advice,” Erro added.            

School may have been the first priority for some but the cost of living can be expensive and having a job with consistent paychecks definitely has helped. To sacrifice most time into work and school could have taken a negative toll on some students.

Student Jaylen Avila (freshman, Psychology) explained her overwhelming experience with balancing work and school. Jaylen shared, “I have two jobs, Rita’s and Zumiez, and I am a full-time student here on campus. So, once I’m finished with school I am at my other job. Balancing both work and school was very stressful but the one thing that helped was communicating to both managers and having them understand my education is most important.”

Starting off being an adult with many responsibilities has been too much to handle for some but there are first-year students that have gotten a hang of it and represent Stanislaus State well.